Kolkata, August 14 (Washington Bangla Radio): Barun Biswas(Parambrata) is a guy from Dukhiya village who teaches in a Kolkata school. Apart from his teaching duties he dedicates himself to the welfare of the poor villagers. His village is facing the peril of social disorder as politically backed goons are raping village women regularly. Even they do not spare elder women and children and gang rape them brutally. Prashanta Mondal (Rudranil) who leads the gang is the brother of a local political leader and through his political connections he is defying every law. Barun takes the non violence route and tries to protest creating a committee as a platform of the protest. But the menace of Prashanta Mandal continues.

Barun tries his best to prevent the rape-fest going on in the village with all his might. He patrols the whole night through his village to stop the goons from doing any such heinous activity. He also sends letters regularly to administrative sectors, but to little effect. Though one of his letters struck some result as it helped in bringing in electricity connection to the village. But that helps little and Barun’s close aid Durga (Mimi Chakrabarty) gets raped. But Barun still remains firm in his non-violence motto but aggressively creates media awareness and thus forces the administration to arrest the culprits. Prashanta Mandal hatches a conspiracy against Barun from behind the bars and gets him murdered. Barun is shot as he gets down from train and heads to his parked motorbike.

The second half of the film shows that Binod Bihari Dutta (Paran Bandoadhaya), one of Barun’s colleagues in school arrives at the village and tries to carry on the crusade started by Barun. But by that time Prashanta Mandal and his crime partners has been set free from jail and has started their so called ‘social work’ again. No one dares to re-ignite the fire of protest and join Binod Bihari as the whole village has again been subdued with fear. Under these circumstances, another man arrives at the village who is an exception and does not give in to any kind of political pressure. The man, i.e. Inspector Animesh Dutta has his own way of handling things. The foul-mouthed, alchoholic and corrupt on the face guy is interestingly extracts favors from the goons and also honestly does his duty managing both in a very subtle way. So Binod Bihari leaves the non-violent route and decides to take the contrary way to deal with the terrorists. What happens next comprises the rest of the film.

While most of the film is inspired by the real life story of Barun Biswas, the other parts are fictional additions. The script is full of raw and real elements and deserves full marks for that. There are too many catchy one liners that will keep popping up in one’s head after coming out from the hall. But one will wonder how many beeps will one need to hear when the film will be aired on television few months later. But for the time being, we really do not need to care.

The film demanded a fine balance between projecting the extremities of real life and at the same time staying away from over the top treatment which could have disrupted the intended realistic treatment. Raj Chakrabarty has been successful in doing that except for a few parts. The song sequence where the introduction of electricity in the Dukhiya village is celebrated looked more like the opening ceremony of a bulb factory. The scene where Prashanta Mandal meets his fate also seems more than real. The item song featuring Puja was also needless. If it was really needed, it could be made in a better way. No skin show and a jerky capture do not make the item song one of the highs of the film for sure but can be ignored as there are too many better aspects to focus on. The much talked about rape scenes in the film do not involve any skin show but effectively bring on screen the tremendous suffering that a victims go through and the brutality involved.

Parambrata is just perfect as Barun Biswas. Very few other actors in the film industry could have moulded himself in the role. Paran Bandhopadhaya too has done justice too his role. He again proves that he can give brilliant performances even if he is not doing comedy roles. Rudranil too is brilliant as the antagonist of the film. He unleashes the horror on screen with tremendous effect. But it was felt that Mimi Chakrabarty’s acting skills has been underused in the film. Her character’s involvement could have been more, at least in the second half of the film if not in the first. In spite of towering performances from all the stars Saswata steals the show once again. The best lines had been kept for him and he delivers them in a way no other actor can. He is a delight to watch. One will definitely love to love Prambrata’s character and love to hate Rudranil’s character. But the same person would love to love all the hate able things about Saswata’s character.

To end with it must be said that ‘Proloy’ is a film having enough potentiality to surge a storm in the box office and also among masses as a tool of protest against the violence on women.

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